I recently had the VarioHeat unit installed in my 2016 Hawk Shell by the Phoenix service center (mobile service). For anyone interested, I can share my experience.
The unit itself:
- Overall I am impressed with the furnace (so far - I have not field tested it much other than the drive back to Utah from Phoenix).
- It will run at a very low noise level (when running on lowest fan speed).
- There is a "night mode" that seems to work pretty well (quiet).
- When in normal mode, if the temp in the camper is far below the set point, the fan speed goes to maximum and that will circulate a lot of air (but not so quiet). As the temperature in the camper gets closer to the set point the fan automatically reduces speed.
- The thermostat does indeed have a minimum temperature setting of 40 Deg F.
- The unit is small enough to fit into the cabinet that housed my original furnace (Atwood Model AFSAD12111_A)
Installation:
- I contacted Truma to request the installation in December and after some back and forth, my service call was scheduled for April 8th.
- There is one person who handles the retrofit installations for Phoenix area. It was fun watching him work and interacting with him. He works out of a mobile van and did the actual work on my camper at a Walmart parking lot.
- Apparently, he is allowed a certain number of hours for the installation at the quoted price, and it is not much. He did spent more hours on my installation than allotted but I was only charged for the original quote. He put in extra effort to make sure I was happy with the installation.
- However, because I am pretty detail oriented/fussy and like to do my own camper mods, I have done further work to improve on the completeness and appearance of the installation since arriving back home. (Which I have been happy to do).
I will attempt to attach photos of the installation. Happy to try to answer any questions.
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